Daft Punk hit ‘Get Lucky’ spawns viral mash-ups

When a song goes viral this time of year, you could take it as a sign it’s on track to become the hit of the summer.

Think of Carly Rae Jepsen’s (Carly Rae Who?!) “Call Me Maybe,” which spun into popularity last spring by a Justin Bieber tweet and subsequent YouTube parody. Or Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” which inspired a deafening chorus of knock-offs in early 2007, which, in the dizzying hot-one-minute-gone-the-next YouTube age, already seems like ancient times.

Daft Punk’s suspenseful marketing build-up to the launch of their first album in eight years, “Random Access Memories,” created enough anticipation that it boiled over into a myriad of cover song tributes to the collection’s capstone tune, “Get Lucky.” Electronica-house faithfuls couldn’t wait to hear it, let alone reinterpret the latest from everyone’s favorite and oft-imitated robot-impersonating French techno-pop duo whose current hit tops the charts in 55 countries, including the United Kingdom. Here’s the official audio in all its polished retro-funkadelic glory:

Here’s an ambient remix of the bright, bouncy original, interpreted for BBC Radio One Live Lounge by three-member British indie folk group Daughter. There’s no video here, just a track laid over a lovely monochromatic still of the band’s lead songstress, Elena Tonra. Somehow they managed to take a funky dance hit and transform it into something sad, calm, yet still-recognizable.

George Barnett

This willowy high fashion model turned one-man band serves up one of the most faithful reinventions of the Daft Punk hit, staying true to the let-it-loose spirit of the catchy dancey inspiration. And he manages to do it all by his lonesome, cutting video from itty bitty keyboard to mic to drums to guitar to a cow bell he plays with a drum stick. The result already captured close to 2 million views on YouTube.

Forsythe

You could call this a cover of a cover. To prove the song’s danceability, avid YouTuber and hoofer extraordinaire “takeSomeCrime” gets funky with it in what appears to be a studio-slash-bedroom, choosing Barnett’s masterful remix to pop-and-lock to. Dude’s energy is infectious, with all his mesmerizing moves, alternately halting and fluid.

Tough to tell if this is truly sans soundtrack of any kind, but the guy who posted it did so claiming it’s an a capella cover. If the sounds here really do come from layered tracks of the same man’s voice and nothing else, then, well, nicely done, JB.

Pitbull

If you’re in the mood to hear the groovy original butchered into a mess of novice club-rap rhymes, then check out this version courtesy of “Mr. Worldwide,” who, as Idolator bluntly put it, “mindlessly rip[s] the life out of this thing as quickly as possible.”